Tag Archive for: business applications

3 Things You Can Improve With A Mobile App Right Now

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As we enter 2023, many appreneurs and captains of industry wonder if there are things they can improve with a mobile app. Yes, there are plenty of things that a mobile app can make better! Yet the longer answer is a bit more complicated, but that shouldn’t dissuade anyone. Just know that mobile apps still present much-untapped potential for those willing to go the extra mile.

In January 2007, the late Steve Jobs introduced the world to the first iPhone. For some, this unassuming mobile device presented the future. And for others, it was seen as nothing more than a fad that would soon pass. 

Finding himself in the latter camp, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dismissed the iPhone for its high price while Microsoft was already selling millions of phones. But nine years later admitted that he was wrong in a Bloomberg interview. 

So what does this tell us about the state of the tech industry? For one, it’s a very unpredictable industry, even for the most prominent players. And secondly, it’s an industry that often rewards those players willing to push the envelope or gain a first-mover advantage.

But Apple didn’t create the first smartphone since IBM’s Simon previously launched in 1994. Nevertheless, Apple launched the iPhone at a time when digital mobile networks and mobile phones already enjoyed wide availability. And, in a way gained a first-mover advantage in a sector largely ignored by its rivals.

Since the launch of the first iPhone, an entire industry and the world have radically transformed. Over the past 15 years, we’ve experienced innovative and life-changing mobile apps. Now, it’s time to see what we can improve with a mobile app in 2023 and beyond!

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1. Use Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR) To Enhance Education

While AR & VR are not new technologies, they’re still overwhelmingly ignored by most mobile app developers. Sadly, this is a huge oversight leading to the creation of many underwhelming and knock-off apps in the marketplace. After all, how many to-do list apps and tower-defense mobile games do users need or want? Not that many if you were to practice due diligence and thoroughly research the app marketplace.

However, users want apps to take advantage of additional features and horsepower their newer smartphones offer. And that’s because most current mid-range mobile devices can deliver impressive AR & VR experiences. Moreover, the education sector requires mobile apps that help explain complex subject matter in an approachable manner.

Think of a class of biology students that need to learn the location of each organ in the human body and what function each serves. A 2D diagram or representation of the human body and each organ may serve this purpose adequately. 

But humans and their organs are not flat, so a 2D depiction is never ideal. Instead, it’s better to tap into the 3D power of modern smartphone graphics processing units (GPUs) and depict the human body as realistically as possible.

And with the additional functionality of AR, a student may pass their smartphone over a body part. The app will use the camera to film and detect the body part and then superimpose the innards of this part on the screen.

Furthermore, VR functionality will allow for a full 3D flythrough of the human body while the student controls the entire process. It will feel like playing a game, but the student will gradually learn where each body part is through their spatial awareness, which the VR experience will continue to hone.

2. Business Processes Can Improve With A Mobile App

The business world is undergoing significant change due to current global events. An armed conflict in Europe, supply chain disruptions, global chip shortages, tech layoffs, and a looming recession will make 2023 a challenging year for many. Businesses that haven’t prepared for these scenarios may not make it through this difficult period.

But what can businesses do to improve their survival rate and even thrive in 2023? They need to look at all their business processes and consider how these can improve with a mobile app. 

Since many businesses need to perform many tasks with fewer employees, it’s crucial to look at automation. And mobile apps not only help with automation but can take it to the next level with the correct implementations of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). 

Consider an e-commerce app used by customers that regularly order computer chips. But as mentioned earlier — there’s a global chip shortage — and many customers won’t receive their orders. Or they won’t receive their orders on time, causing them to take their business elsewhere. But it’s possible to get a different result with an AI & ML-powered e-commerce app. 

AI can deliver a human-like response to all customer inquiries through the app’s chat feature. If a chip isn’t available, the built-in AI chatbot will notify the customer and suggest alternatives already in stock. And possibly, offer a discount to entice the customer. Thus, instead of leaving, the customer will likely complete the purchase.

And a well-implemented ML algorithm will learn customer order patterns and analyze these in detail. Then, it can pre-order items that customers will likely want and ensures that the company storeroom always has in-demand products in stock.

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3. Social Media Automation To Allow Staff To Do Their Jobs

While there are several good social media automation apps in the marketplace, you may want to custom-build one for your organization. Perhaps, you don’t want your employees to waste precious company time on Facebook and Twitter. But you don’t mind them engaging with their colleagues and company stakeholders on an internal social platform.

You want staff to freely share crucial information that helps the company reach its goals. And you want them to easily find and contact key people in the company, even if they’re overseas.

However, spending too much time, even on this internal platform — will adversely affect productivity. To counter this problem, you’ll need robust automation features that keep staff focused on their daily tasks.

But what form will these automation features take? Staff should be able to upload and organize all kinds of file formats and media content. And this process should be intuitive with few touch gestures. 

Furthermore, staff should be able to schedule when to send files and who should receive them. And receipt notifications should be non-disruptive so that staff members aren’t inclined to look at their phones every time a file reaches a recipient. 

Another area where automation enhances the social media experience is finding vital information quickly. Perhaps, certain staff members took part in a training program and posted this on their timelines. Yet not all staff have added hashtags, so searching for all these posts may prove time-consuming.

But an AI-powered search function will find all these posts in mere seconds. And it’s possible to set it so that it notifies the user whenever other staff members take part in the same training program in the foreseeable future. Knowing which staff members have received training can help with assigning them new assignments.

The Bottom Line

As we’ve already revealed, there are several things one can improve with a mobile app. The education sector and enterprises of all sizes can benefit immensely from the correct mobile app implementation. Contact NS804 to learn how we’ll help you create incredible apps that will empower you in 2023 and beyond!

6 Ways An App Can Improve Your Business Lead Count

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Improving your business lead count should be a top priority. And that’s because you’re likely operating in a competitive environment where only effective organizations survive and thrive. However, it’s never been easier to pump up that business lead count with today’s mobile app technologies.

About a decade ago, you’d rely on your website, blog, social media presence, and marketing outreach to generate leads. While you’ll still need to use these channels, a mobile app can help boost your lead count immensely. But that shouldn’t come as a surprise due to the wide proliferation of mobile devices. Inevitably, most of your clients likely engage with your organization via their smartphones and tablets. 

And this presents a golden opportunity for you to strengthen your relationship with existing clients while also reaching new clients. A quality mobile app designed and coded by a reputable studio, such as NS804, can take your lead count to the next level. But if you’re sitting on the fence, here are several reasons why an app can improve your business lead count.

1. Tap Into A Larger Market

As of January 2023, there are 6.92 billion smartphone users, which make up 86.41% of the global population. When the majority of the world uses smartphones, you must optimize your business for mobile. Failing to do so will be detrimental to your business, as your competitors probably already have front-facing mobile components implemented. 

When these competitors have established a direct relationship with clients via their mobile apps — it’s game over! Clients will remain loyal to these competitors since they’ll enjoy the convenience of having their needs met via a mobile app. They don’t have to waste precious time calling in or visiting an organization’s premises if they make inquiries or have services rendered. 

More importantly, your competitors can keep on generating new leads with their mobile apps. Existing customers will often recommend these apps to their friends and families if they’re satisfied with the user experience (UX). But your competitors can also spread awareness of their app via advertisements, leaflets, flyers, and other marketing materials. All they need to do is place a scannable QR code on these marketing materials, which has a download link to their apps.

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2. Optimize Your Email Campaigns For Mobile

Another way a mobile app can help you is with your email campaigns. First-time users that download your app may need to provide an email address and set up 2-step verification. So, they’ll receive subsequent communications via email, which you should optimize for mobile devices.

However, email is an effective tool for generating and improving your business lead count. You can start by creating several email templates that work well on mobile devices. Then, proceed with A/B testing to optimize these templates and your messaging further. 

Running a lengthy email campaign can be time-consuming, so use an automation email marketing tool. You may use an existing platform or create your own, which integrates with your mobile app for maximum efficiency. Also, ensure that you’ve set up a backend database to store user emails, responses, feedback, and other related information.

3. User Geo-Location Presents Further Business Lead Opportunities

Utilize the built-in GPS of your users’ smartphones to determine the locations of most of your clients. With this information, you can run promotions in your most lucrative markets and do outreach programs in markets where you’re relatively unknown.

But keep in mind that geo-location strategies work best with existing users. For example, a restaurant may use its order-taking app to secure orders. But also use the same app to run promotions via in-app messages when customers are nearby the restaurant. Undoubtedly, this strategy will boost sales but won’t likely lead to additional business leads.

4. Attract B2B Clients Via Sponsored InMail

You’ll find many potential business clients on LinkedIn. And one of the best ways to reach these clients is via sponsored InMail messages. But this feature is only available for premium users, and 50 credits of InMail currently costs $79.99 per month. Yet it could be worthwhile, especially if you’re able to attract quality prospects. 

And the good news is that you can further increase your business lead counts on LinkedIn with the Communication APIs. These APIs include the Invitation API and Messages API, which you may integrate into your app. The side benefit is that your app will become a social hub for clients that use LinkedIn on a regular basis. And potentially bring new clients to your business that you would’ve never been able to reach before.

5. Build A Business Lead And Tracking App

If your company and sales representatives work out in the field, you should consider building a mobile business lead and tracking app. While there are several established platforms available such as Apptivo, Salesforce, and Zoho, you may prefer a tailor-built solution instead. 

The primary advantage is that you can take a mobile-first or mobile-only approach. And even though there’ll be an upfront cost for developing this app, you won’t need to pay an ongoing subscription or deal with changing end-user license agreement (EULA) issues of turnkey solutions.

But why would you want a business lead tracking app when a spreadsheet would suffice? For a small business that’s only just started establishing itself, a spreadsheet may do in the short term. However, for any organization that needs to integrate other components, such as its customer support systems, e-commerce, and email, it’s an absolute necessity.

Ultimately, you’ll need to consider your organization’s growth rate and the complexity of your business processes before developing such an app. And while there’s nothing wrong with using a turnkey solution as a startup, a custom-built and robust solution should always be a long-term goal.

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6. Automate And Monitor Your Business Leads

Make your email campaigns and outreach programs as engaging as possible. You want to impress your prospects early on and keep them interested all the way down the sales funnel. However, you may have generated plenty of leads, so you’ll need to automate the process.

Take the tracking app that we mentioned earlier. One way to improve it is by including the capability of processing a large number of prospects rapidly. And ensure that it keeps log event data, including when a sales representative attains a business lead, the date and time, the value of the lead, and any sales related to this lead. 

Then, implement analytics that keep track of all aspects of your business lead endeavors. These analytics should reveal how successful your efforts have been, the quality of your leads, and insights into all your sales activities. Moreover, you should be able to drill down on the data to a granular level. And compile a detailed report with a single click, which management can access at any time. 

And if you already have a customer relationship manager (CRM), you should allow for easy interoperability with your business lead tracking app. This will make customer acquisition and retaining those customers a more efficient process.

In Conclusion

Mobile apps offer the perfect vehicle for increasing your business lead counts significantly. Not only do they make the process of attaining leads more efficient, but it’s also easier to track results and take the appropriate actions far more quickly. Contact NS804 to learn how we’ll help you develop a business lead app that will boost your business! 

Improving Remote Team Communication For Remote Workers

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Improving Communication and Collaboration for Remote Workers

The digital era saw a hyper acceleration through COVID-19 and the events of 2020. Because of the pandemic and the major shift toward a digital era, remote workers and remote staff quickly became the norm. This subsequently forced businesses and organizations to embrace a digital world with remote workers. Before the pandemic, there was already a lot of buzz and excitement around the future of remote work. In fact, some companies like NomadX sought out to create entire business plans based around planning travelling work trips for the remote-worker. In any case, whether prepared for the digital era or not, the transition started in the blink of an eye.

Now, remote work and remote workers seem absolutely normal. As if it were always the way things were. However, many organizations and businesses are still adjusting to the new remote landscape and digital economy. And the companies that were already in position for a digital transition, are still looking for ways to improve their current remote-work environment.

One of the most important aspects in a business is communication; internal communication between teams, external communications with partners, suppliers, and consumers, and internal communication between staff and management as well. Especially in a remote-work-environment, then, prioritizing effective and efficient communication tools is more than necessary.

Keeping Remote Workers Looped In

Remote workers need to be able to communicate. Plain and simple as that. Yet, communication can mean a lot of things; and in today’s world businesses utilize everything from social media platforms, to email, IM, and phone calls to correspond and communicate. Therefore, building a suite of communication tools that keeps your remote staff in the loop is a daunting task.

When addressing the communication solutions for your remote workers it’s important that you keep their needs, workflows, and operations in mind. You don’t want to give a carpenter a painters toolbox and the same applies to your remote workers. Building an enterprise application from scratch for your organization won’t only help you customize the features and tools that your remote staff can access; but will also lead to boosted efficiency and higher rates of productivity from your staff.

Encouraging Communication

While developing your enterprise business application to address the communication needs of your remote workers; consider push notifications to encourage and boost communication efforts between team members. By enabling push notifications at a reasonable rate, your enterprise application will become more than a simple business tool. Rather, it will add value to the c0-worker relationships that exist and develop within your firm, boost productivity, and lead to higher rates of efficiency from your team.

In addition to boosting important business KPIs; having an organization-wide enterprise application for communication supports team-building and team bonding. By acting as a medium and platform for digital and remote team-building exercises, by investing in a custom enterprise application, you’re really investing in the people of your firm.

Wrapping Up

The era of the remote workers is upon us, and it isn’t going anywhere soon. Even with vaccinations rolling out world-wide, the pillar of remote work is likely here permanently.

For more information on managing remote workers, enterprise application solutions, or anything else app development, keep browsing NS804.

Four Things Your Enterprise App Is Missing

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Four Key Components Your Enterprise App Needs

The beautiful thing about baking is that almost all of the recipes already exist. All you have to do, then, is follow the recipe. And with a little patience you’ll then be eating sweet treats and feeling like Betty White in no time. This is the glory of a template. The baker knows the ingredients, knows the ratios, and because of their knowledge they can alter the recipe in other ways. Understanding the key ingredients of a successful enterprise app will help you and your company in updating or developing your enterprise apps.

Designs, Trends, and Visuals

While this may seem a little frivolous, the contrary is true. Having an updated look, feel, and function to your enterprise app is vital to your employees everyday operations. Again, this might seem a little silly at first, but it’s quite logical when examined. Over the course of the last couple decades our brains have become programmed to think and operate in a certain way. As such, leaving enterprise apps outdated forces employees to think in an outdated and inefficient manner. This, in turn, results in a slow and inefficient process within your organization.

Non-Integrated Solutions

This goes hand-in-hand with the point about above about outdated legacy systems. Outdated enterprise apps further hinder your business practices by limiting your ability to integrate them with more modern-day solutions that are common to the modern market. This leaves your company at a significant disadvantage compared to your competitors.

Not only that, but updating your enterprise app to be more compatible with modern day solutions will boost your business. You’ll see an immediate increase in efficiency, as your entire operation will be streamlined and optimized.

Compatibility Across Devices

Compatibility is always a focal point in app development. Making sure that all users, no matter what device they prefer, have unthrottled access to your application is vital, especially in a business setting. This is because, in a remote business context, your employees may have any number of personal devices from which they’re accessing work.

Making sure that your app is accessible from both android and Ios devices is a vital step. You want to make sure that any and all users are able to successfully use your application. Accessibility is a huge piece in that puzzle.

Offline Work Capability

This is another key ingredient to building a successful enterprise app. Sometimes employees need a place to flush out their ideas. Some scratch-paper, so to speak. Including some offline-access functions in your enterprise app will allow users the privacy and freedom they need to work out their latest inventions and innovations. Without the prying eyes of team-members and co-workers.

This also allows for your employees to test out new formats, or try new formulas in their spreadsheets before making them live, or sharing their trials; further allowing the success of each individual in your company.

Wrapping Up

Having a comprehensive and modern enterprise app is now vital for most businesses. Especially in the new remote economy. For more information on developing or updating an enterprise app for your business, visit NS804. NS804 is the premier place for the everyday app developer.